The other night I glanced at the television to see an advertisement for a smooth-looking new car by Hyundai. All very clever with a sort of liquid metal effect – due to the wonders of computer generated technology – but absolutely nothing at all about the car. There was no description of how fast the car could go, what sort of gearbox it had, how many seats, how much it costs, what its fuel consumption is. Nothing. It was about as informative as watching a North Korean press release.
The reason, I think, why modern car advertisements are like this is because of a campaign by the UK authorities, with bodies like the Advertising Standards Authority, to remove all reference to the idea that a car is desirable because it goes fast. One must not offend against the Gods of Health and Safety by implying, stating or otherwise celebrating that this or that set of wheels goes like a rocket. No sir. One must not lead the gullible British public into the sin of speeding and other naughtinesses. What we therefore have are adverts that are self-indulgent eye candy, of no more import than a nice piece of modernist artwork. Here is an example of what I mean.
It is, I suppose, a reflection of the society in which we live that advertisements, like old Tom and Jerry cartoons, get bowdlerised or otherwise influenced by the desire to remove all risk from life. But life is not free from risk, and risk is actually one of the ways that you know that you are alive rather than dead.
On a brighter note, Richard Hammond, “The Hamster” as he is known to his Top Gear TV colleagues, is back to the screens this Sunday after recovering from a stunt that went badly wrong. What I continue to love about that show is that you know, you just know, that the serried ranks of the do-gooder classes cannot abide this programme.
Go Hamster!
Advertising is just plain weird in many ways
Just for the hell of it, and keeping the “Creatives” employed.
The benefit to those employing ad agencies, as I have said before – Is slight.
For instance does anyone remember the Hanson Ad’s
A firm from over here
doing rather well over there
Or some such slogan.
So what is that supposed to do for Johnny Consumer (Me) ? Where’s my IN to this magic product?
The only IN I could see, being that they were a multi-national and all!, was to buy shares in them. But this was never mentioned.
It seemed to me to be a corparate boast, mascerading as an advert for something but you never knew what.
Yet it ran an ran on TV for ages, with us the public going
HUH??
The reason, I think, why modern car advertisements are like this is because…
Well, that and the fact that the advertising industry is comprised of a large number of wankers.
to remove all reference to the idea that a car is desirable because it goes fast.
From new up until the late nineties, my ride was a Honda CX500TC. Thank you to the incomprehensibly ‘reasoned’ Naderesque laws, the speedometer was only permitted to indicate speeds up to 85mph. !!! I immediately learned to guage speed by the tachometer and pitch of the engine.
Along the same line, I’ve seen convincing information that Pontiac systematically lied about the horsepower of their muscle engines during the mid to late 60s. They were afraid that if they admitted how much horsepower they were producing, the safety priests would order them to stop.
RAB’s post reminds me of that tire advert from a while back, which used “Venus in Furs” as the soundtrack. Marvellous bit of film, but I’m blowed if I can remember which brand of tires it was for.
BTW, I notice that I’m not the only lower case rob commenting here. As I suspect that the other chap (who’s views I often agree with) was here first, I’ll give some thought to differentiation.
I don’t know if it’s even possible to buy a car now that won’t do at least 50% over NZ’s 100 km/h speed limit, so top speed is something I really couldn’t care less about.
I do care about 0 – 50 km/h a lot though. And 80 – 120, preferably in top gear. And lots of room. And cornering as if on rails. And ability to tow. And 30+ mpg fuel economy. But top speed is of zero interest. If it can do the other stuff then it’ll be more than adequate.
And in North America, Mazda presently has a catch-phrase for their ads, ‘Zoom Zoom’ which is uttered to the camera by a 12 year old boy, while cars zoom by in the background…
– Quite possibly a fear of burgeoning insurance costs , or emissions, which killed the Chrysler Hemi.
– You just expertly described the mid-90’s Chev Caprice/Buick Roadmaster. All of the above except cornering (they were 4,200-lb whales with ‘soft’ luxo-suspensions), they had the latest Corvette engines, got 31+ mpg (verified), and came from the factory with 5,000-lb towing capacity.
I’ve always held that that car was proof of the oil companies being in cahoots with the car companies to sell us more gas. When it gets 4-6 more mpg than a 4-cylinder econobox that it outweighs by half-a-ton, due to a simple Corvette-style trick in the engine compartment, why is every car on the road not packing an engine like that?
Top Gear is back to annoy envirofascists and to make one want to actually watch the TV again. The only thing decent left on the BBC that is for sure. What is most pathetic is that Top Gear is funnier than most of the things that are supposed to be comedy on the Beeb these days.
Welcome back Hamster.
rob,
I too remember that tyre advert quite vividly but have no recollection of the company it was for.
I suspect the most successful TV ad campaign at the moment in the UK is Cilit Bang!
Bang and the dirt is gone!
And that one is hardly artful or sophisticated.
**sigh**
Ok, i’ll bite.
Not all the people who are opposed to top gear are of the do-gooder classes.
Speaking as New Zealander who has seen the end result of more than one car accident caused by macho bravado and careless use of speed, there’s a lot to be said for curtailing excessive speed and those who promote it.
It’s only when you see the grisly end results that you realise how damaging it can be. For example:
1 – My stepsister, almost killed due to careless driving, ended up in intensive care for 3 months. She still has health problems 15 years later.
2 – A peer, killed in a fiery car accident caused by speeding. The car crashed and burst into flames, did he die from the impact, or did he burn to death?
If there was no glamorisation of speed then there would be a lot less accidents. FACT!
newbury wrote:
‘And in North America, Mazda presently has a catch-phrase for their ads, ‘Zoom Zoom’ which is uttered to the camera by a 12 year old boy, while cars zoom by in the background…”
And I’m 99 44/100% sure that I’ve read that this same advertizing has been criticised elsewhere for the same reason – suggesting that Mazdas go fast. Australia, maybe . . . .?
There’s a great commercial running right now in the US for the GT500 Mustang. Young man watches as a GT500 is unloaded off the plane in Germany, and the German official asks him ‘Could you not find a car you liked in Germany?’ and the young man replies ‘No, I couldn’t find a speed limit I liked in America.’
Another great Mustang ad shows father-and-son behind the wheel doing burnouts in a parking lot. They come to a stop and the father says to the son ‘Now that’s what I mean. This thing is not a toy! (pause) You wanna go again?’
Of course they do. Amish boys race their buggies to see who’s fastest – and they’ve never seen a TV advertisement in their lives.
llater,
llamas
i, pointing out that a car can accelerate or whatever is not the same as goading people to break the law. People have free will you know. We are not little children who have to be shepherded or mollycoddled. I have seen some idiotic driving in my time although most of that has been lack of consideration rather than speeding.
I find it interesting that a recent radio commercial here in Phoenix Arizona USA advertised cars that “you’ll lose your license just looking at”.
It’s important when thinking about driving in the States that you keep this little truism in mind. Americans think 100 years is a long time. Europeans think that 100 miles is a long distance.
Whoa there! Shows like Top Gear are popular because people find speed (in its various forms) exciting — not the other way around. You’re putting the cart before the horse.
There’s nothing at all wrong with enjoying the pleasures that fast driving brings. Naturally, beyond a reasonable point one should take one’s activities off the public streets and onto a race track or other suitable venue — as they do on Top Gear. But the pursuit of pleasure through speed is a legitimate pastime.
i wrote:
‘If there was no glamorisation of speed then there would be a lot less accidents. FACT!’
No, not fact – bullsh*t.
Average vehicle speed does not correlate to the number or rate of accidents. Anywhere.
And, since you have absolutely no data regarding the effects of ‘glamorisation’ of speed – because there is no such data – your assertion is not FACT! but your own, unsupported opinion. Please try and grasp the difference between these two things.
llater,
llamas